NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs dropped to his knees and prayed within the courtroom after he was acquitted Wednesday of intercourse trafficking and racketeering prices that would have put one among hip-hop’s celebrated figures behind bars for all times. The rapper was convicted of lesser prostitution-related offenses and denied bond by the decide as he awaits sentencing.
The combined end result capped a sordid authorized odyssey that shattered Combs’ affable “Puff Daddy” picture and derailed his profession as a Grammy-winning artist and music government, trend entrepreneur, model ambassador and actuality TV star.
Combs stands convicted of two counts of a criminal offense — transportation to interact in prostitution — that carries a most sentence of 10 years in jail. However jurors cleared him of prices that would have put him behind bars for all times.
He was convicted of flying individuals across the nation, together with his girlfriends and male intercourse employees, to interact in sexual encounters, a felony violation of the federal Mann Act.
The cost is punishable by as much as 10 years in jail, however Combs’ attorneys mentioned that beneath federal sentencing tips he’d probably face about two years in jail. Prosecutors, citing Combs’ violence and different elements, mentioned the rules would name for no less than 4 to 5 years. Jailed since his September arrest, he’s already served 9 months behind bars.
In a triumph for Combs, the jury of eight males and 4 girls acquitted him of racketeering conspiracy and intercourse trafficking prices associated to allegations that he used his cash, energy and scary bodily power to control his girlfriends into tons of of drug-fueled intercourse marathons with the lads.
Combs’ protection workforce argued that the ladies had been keen members and that none of his violence justified the severity of the fees.
Protection lawyer Marc Agnifilo requested that Combs be launched on bond instantly to await his sentencing, saying the acquittals had modified the calculus about whether or not he wanted to be held.
“He’s not going to flee. He’s been given his life again,” Agnifilo mentioned. Prosecutors opposed the discharge request.
Choose Arun Subramanian denied it, saying Combs — for now — hadn’t met the burden of displaying by clear and convincing proof a “lack of hazard to any particular person or the neighborhood.”
Combs, 55, sat stoic, arms at his lap, as he heard the bond resolution.
The decide will resolve Combs’ punishment and prompt Oct. 3 as a sentencing date. However first, there can be a digital listening to Tuesday on the protection’s request for an earlier sentencing date.
Verdict follows weeks of harrowing testimony
Federal officers concerned within the case responded to the result by noting that intercourse crimes “are all too current in lots of elements of our society.”
“New Yorkers and all People need this scourge stopped and perpetrators delivered to justice,” Manhattan-based U.S. Lawyer Jay Clayton and Ricky J. Patel, who heads federal Homeland Safety Investigations’ New York workplace, mentioned in an announcement.
Jurors deliberated for about 13 hours over three days earlier than asserting their verdict. It got here after they mentioned late Tuesday that that they had selected 4 counts however had been caught on the racketeering one. At that time, the decide informed them to maintain deliberating and hold the partial verdict beneath wraps.
Combs didn’t testify at his trial, which featured 34 witnesses in addition to video of the rapper attacking his former girlfriend Cassie, the R&B singer born Casandra Ventura.
Her lawyer, Douglas Wigdor, mentioned in an announcement after the decision that “by coming ahead along with her expertise, Cassie has left an indelible mark on each the leisure trade and the combat for justice.”
Later, he requested the decide in a letter to disclaim Combs bail, saying “Ms. Ventura believes that Mr. Combs is prone to pose a hazard to the victims who testified on this case, together with herself, in addition to to the neighborhood.”
Cassie testified for 4 days about her turbulent 11-year relationship with Combs, which started after she signed together with his Dangerous Boy document label.
Cassie mentioned Combs grew to become obsessive about voyeuristic encounters, organized with the assistance of his employees, that concerned intercourse employees and copious quantities of child oil. Through the intercourse occasions, known as “freak-offs” or “lodge nights,” Combs would order Cassie to do issues with different males that she discovered humiliating, she testified.
When issues didn’t go Combs’ manner, he would beat her, she mentioned.
One other ex-girlfriend, testifying beneath the pseudonym “Jane,” informed the jury she repeatedly informed Combs she didn’t wish to have intercourse with the lads employed for his or her trysts.
“I’m not an animal. I want a break,” she informed him. Nonetheless, she mentioned she felt “obligated” to conform together with his calls for, partially as a result of he paid her lease.
The AP doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly, as Cassie has.
Protection calls case an invasion of privateness
The trial’s most well-known witness, rapper Child Cudi, mentioned Combs broke into his house in late 2011 after studying he and Cassie had been relationship. After his automotive was firebombed just a few weeks later, Cudi — whose actual title is Scott Mescudi — mentioned he knew Combs “had one thing to do” with it. Combs denied it.
Combs’ protection workforce acknowledged that he could possibly be violent however argued that prosecutors had been intruding in his private life. In his closing remarks to the jury, Agnifilo mentioned it wasn’t unlawful for Combs to make “selfmade porn” together with his girlfriends.
Rapper, entrepreneur and prison defendant
Combs was on the middle of the East Coast-West Coast hip-hop battles of the Nineteen Nineties and have become some of the influential hip-hop producers and executives of the previous three a long time, diversifying his pursuits with the Sean John trend label, Ciroc vodka, a cable TV channel and a movie and TV studio.
In 2001, Combs was on the middle of one of many largest hip-hop trials of its period, stemming from a Manhattan nightclub taking pictures that injured three individuals in 1999. Combs was acquitted of prices that he took an unlawful gun into the membership and tried to bribe his driver to take the autumn.
His profession recovered shortly that point.
Combs’ fame could have suffered irreparable harm, although, after Cassie sued him in November 2023, alleging years of sexual and bodily abuse. He settled the following day for $20 million, however extra lawsuits by different ladies and men adopted.
Most are nonetheless pending.
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Related Press reporters Jennifer Peltz and Julie Walker contributed to this report.
